The Leader
by ZSteenbergen
Summary: Forrest Greene is a 19 year old trainer who dreams of becoming a gym leader.
1. Chapter 1

When the alarm went off Forrest shot out of bed; he was so excited. Today was the day that he would go before the Pokémon League board to hand in his application to start an official Pokémon League Gym. He had applied twice before but felt more confident this time because he had an excellent résumé. Having beaten all the gym leaders in two different regions and beaten one and a half elite fours it was clear to Forrest that this would be his best chance to be accepted. He went downstairs to give a pep-talk to his "team", his Pokémon. A lover of grass type Pokémon Forrest had assembled a strong team of the type. His favorite Pokémon was Bulbasaur and at the age of seven he had started a Bulbasaur fan club, the motto being "Pokémon number 1 is number 1". Forrest has since evolved his first Bulbasaur to a Venusaur, the "captain" of the rest of the Pokémon.

The remainder of the group includes a Leafeon, originally an Eevee, Forrest's first Pokémon that was given to him by his uncle, Jim. Jim Greene runs an Eevee ranch, he breeds Eevees and evolves them into all of the different forms for people who have difficulty doing it themselves (either they cannot get their hands on evolution stones or cannot time an Eevee's evolution properly). A Tropius, Lombre and Bayleef finish out the group. Forrest spoke to them all about how they were going to "wow" the board today; the process of becoming a gym leader involves not only filling out the application, providing a résumé describing your history and achievements as a trainer, being interviewed by the board and then, finally, having the board inspect your Pokémon to judge your ability. Forrest, in his previous attempts to apply, never had a problem with ability as a trainer. The first time he applied he had really messed up the interview and then the second time it was just a matter of not having a strong enough résumé, but this time he was ready. Forrest returned all of his Pokémon to their poké-balls and then asked Tropius to fly to the Pokémon League headquarters where Forrest called him back into the poké-ball. He stepped into the massive skyscraper, rode the elevator to the uppermost floor and sat in the waiting area. After a few minutes a woman stepped out and called out his name.

"Greene?" she called out, "Is there a Forrest Greene here?

"That's me," Forrest said, rising from his seat.

"The board will see you now." She then led him into the conference room where the six board members sat; the president, the vice president, the treasurer, the board's two secretaries and the Pokémon league founder/president emeritus, Mr. Indigo (the plateau that the Kanto and Johto elite fours are headquartered is owned by and named for him).

"This meeting of the Interregional Pokémon League Board will now come to order," Mr. White, the board's current president, said whilst lightly tapping an official looking gavel featuring the Pokémon League logo on each cheek and a poké-ball design on each peen. "Now we have reviewed our records and they tell us that you were almost accepted during your last application attempt." He paused as if he were expecting me to answer a question that he never asked.

"I, uh, was not aware of that." Forrest said.

"Yes, the forms you gave us last time you applied were filled out and say that you are an exemplary candidate for gym leadership, despite being all of 19 years old, you only lacked certain credentials. We, since, have deliberated over the newest application you sent in as well as the résumé you provided and have decided to make you an official gym leader within the Interregional Pokémon League." This was the best news Forrest could have asked for, nothing could ruin this moment. "There is only one small condition you have to meet." except that.

"What's the condition?"

"A new region is being brought into the league." Mrs. Crimson, the board's vice-president, said, "The Setureso region has recently been accepted to be made an official region within the Interregional Pokémon League, before this can be done we need to establish gyms and an elite four. This is where you come in, 32 gym leader hopefuls are being sent to the region with a team of trainers that specialize in the same Pokémon as the leader. The gyms will be inspected upon set up to determine how the environment benefits both the trainers and their Pokémon as they train there."

"OK, that sounds simple enough." Forrest interrupted.

"I'm not finished," she continued, "as you know, a region can only have 8 gyms, and yet 32 are sent to the region, do you know why?" She asked, not unlike a first grade teacher addressing a student.

"I assume it has something to do with a competition of some sort." Forrest said

"Exactly," Mr. Indigo said, chiming in, "the plan is that there will be 4 gym leader candidates for every proposed type-specific gym. 8 gyms, 32 gym leaders, make sense?" He asked, again a teacher-like voice was used. I nodded. "You will be one of four grass-type gym leader candidates; you will face each other candidate in a tournament, three matches of one on one. The winner of the 'mini-tournament' will become the official gym leader for their type. You will have two weeks to gather trainers to make up your initial gym members. Thank you for your time and we will see you in Setureso." Mr. Indigo said dismissively.

"Do you have any questions?" Mr. White said, his tone giving off the connotation of "I am in charge here, and don't you forget it."

"Um, just one. Do you know who any of the other leader candidates are yet?"


	2. Chapter 2

"Forrest! Hey!" Scarlet shrieked as she answered the door. Scarlet had been best pals with Forrest since they were kids and friendly rivals just as long. She had a personal love of fire type Pokémon, her first being a Flareon she had received from Forrest's Uncle Jim, around the same time Forrest had received his Eevee (Uncle Jim refuses to give evolve Pokémon to family only giving them Eevees, believing that they should evolve them on our own instead of getting stronger Pokémon the "easy way").

"I just heard the news!" Forrest shouted, matching her excitement. Scarlet was accepted by the board to go to Setureso as a fire-type gym candidate.

"Really? The only people that know about it are the board and the other- "she paused when she realized that he, too, was accepted. "Oh my gosh! This is going to be great!" She was so happy she gave him a big hug that cut off his air for a second; it was all because she has been waiting for this day to come for years. Scarlet has dreamed of being a gym leader since before Forrest even new her, it's kind of a family dream. Her grandfather was a trainer under Blaine in the Cinnabar islands, her mother started an unofficial gym in Johto and trained people how to use fire Pokémon, but never could become an official leader in the Pokémon League. Scarlet has gotten farther than anyone else in her extended family. Her cousin, Brick, has been applying, but has never been accepted by the league; some say that Brick's ex training partner, Flint, has been sabotaging Brick's efforts ever since he made it into the Elite Four. Brick, ashamed of his failure, has cut all ties from his family and no one has heard from him in years. Scarlet's life was very different from Forrest's; she was the youngest of 5, the only girl, whereas Forrest was an only child. Scarlet never knew her dad, he died when she was only two years old; Forrest grew up with two parents, practically three considering how often he saw his uncle Jim.

His dream of gym leadership came from growing up outside Celadon City where Uncle Jim's daughters all trained under Erika and Forrest got to watch their battles from time to time. His cousins were great trainers and always told Forrest how he could become a great trainer himself someday, they were very supportive of him, in fact his cousin Sissy, the closest thing to a sister Forrest had, was the one who gave him his first Bulbasaur when he was 6 years old. From that day forward Forrest knew that he would become a gym leader, and make his cousins, especially Sissy proud of him. Scarlet invited Forrest inside her house where they talked about who they wanted to take with them to the new Region, Scarlet told Forrest that they don't allow any groups larger than 5 people, including the leader themselves.

"I was thinking about asking this boy who works for my Uncle." Forrest told her, telling her how he was thinking about it during the fly over to her town atop Tropius.

"Why?" She asked, pouring glasses of fresh brewed green tea, heated to perfection by Flareon.

"Well from what I've heard from Uncle Jim he is a hard worker and a talented trainer." Forrest said, taking a sip of the tea Scarlet served.

"But what does he bring to your team?"

"What do you mean?" Forrest asked, thinking he had just answered that.

"Let me give you an example of someone that I'm taking, my brother Toby." Scarlet said.

"Why?" Forrest asked, mimicking her tone from before.

"Because he is my oldest brother, he's been with my mother helping her in the gym since it started, he's forgotten more about fire-types than you could ever know. He provides my team with strong knowledge of the type, and also would be forever loyal to me."

"I get it, you have someone who can lead the team, and who won't lead it against you."

"Exactly! Now try to think of someone else that might serve your team better." She said, happy that he was finally getting her point.

"Um, well there's this guy, Marty, who works with my dad in the research lab, he knows everything there is to know about grass-types and has a textbook like memory about every grass type Pokémon there is."

"That's perfect!" Scarlet said beaming, she wanted Forrest to succeed more than anything, save for her own success.

"That's always good to hear." He looked at my watch and saw how late it had gotten "I'm sorry, but I should get going."

"Oh, OK, see you on the ship I guess."

"See you. Oh, and thanks for the help." Forrest said, he called out Tropius who flew him back home. He was so glad he saw Scarlet today, otherwise he might have assembled a sub-par gym team and that wouldn't have been good. Forrest knew he had to find the best trainers that were out there.


	3. Chapter 3

Forrest had only two weeks to assemble a team of grass type specialists, it wasn't going to be easy but he thought he could handle it. The first person he wanted to talk to was Marty Grunberg, an employee at the Pokémon research lab Forrest's father worked at. Forrest went with his dad, Marty's boss, on his way to work. The research lab was a subsidiary of a big company that makes gadgets having to do with Pokémon. Marty was an engineer in the research and development department for devices used for training in fields and in forests, Forrest's father were his supervisor, a senior engineer.

"Hey Marty, my kid wants to talk to you." Mr. Greene said to Marty, who sat at a cubicle overflowing with papers.

"Sure what does he need?" Marty asked with a big smile, he was a slim man in his late thirties. He wore thick rimmed glasses and had thinning hair.

"Go on son, ask him." Forrest's dad said in his 'your problem, you solve it' way of passing conversations onto people.

"Well Mr. Grunberg," Forrest began.

"Please! Call me Marty."

"Alright then, Marty, I have just been told that I am being sent to the Setureso region, where I am to bring a team of grass Pokémon experts to help me establish a gym over there. And I was thinking that, since you know everything there is to know about-"

"I'm going to have to stop you there. I'm flattered that I was considered, I really am, but I'm not so sure that I can, I mean, I have work that needs to be done" Marty said before Mr. Greene cut him off, my dad could be like that.

"No need to worry about that Marty it'll all be taken care of. I talked to the CEO and he says that your job will be waiting for you right here when you get back," he said to Marty before turning to Forrest, smiling, "Provided you make use of the company's products during your time there." Forrest smiled, thanks to his dad he was not only guaranteed an expert in grass type Pokémon but he would also be able to provide trainers with state of the art equipment that very few others could.

"Oh, well then I guess I'm coming with you to the...Setureso region was it?"

The next day, Forrest went to visit his uncle at the Eevee ranch to meet the ranch hand that Jim had recommended. Forrest walked over to the massive property after breakfast; the ranch was located only one town over. It was an enormous expanse of grass as far as you could see. Exactly 25.5 acres in size it was perfectly organized into sectors. One half acre was set aside for Jim's house and yard where he and his wife, Alice, raised their daughters and the daughters' respective Pokémon. The rest of the property is divvied up for the raising of Eevee. The land is arranged around a central plot of four acres. These four acres are dedicated to normal Eevee with seven sections of three acres each for the separate evolutions.

Jim Greene was a genius when it came to organizing the ranch. Holding a stake in the evolution stone mining industry he was able to accrue large quantities of the stones at a fraction of the going price for them on the consumer market; he even had moss rocks and ice rocks shipped in upon their discovery. A team of skilled ranch hands and trainers work around the clock to raise the Eevees properly so that they evolve well and get adopted. Forrest was to meet with Uncle Jim's top trainer, Danny the main hall of the farm house Forrest met with Uncle Jim.

"Morning Uncle Jim," Forrest said. "How are you?"

"Feeling good my boy," Jim said, he was an older man in his sixties but looked older with all of the hard work he had put into the ranch over the years. He was leading Forrest to the fields with his trusted Stoutland, nicknamed Hoss, by his side that Jim had raised from a Lillipup. Hoss was, in a sense, Jim's first ranch hand. Jim would need Hoss to clear away Sentret, Bidoof, Patrat and their evolutions from the property. As Hoss got bigger and evolved, Jim used him to herd the Eevee. Nowadays though, like Jim, Hoss could take it easy as younger replacements could handle all of his jobs. One such replacement was Danny and his team of Pokémon.

Danny wasn't incredibly young, a few years younger than Forrest. His father was friends with Jim and arranged for Danny to work on the ranch, thinking it would be good for him. Danny had a checkered past, nothing serious but he was known to use his superior training ability to pick on younger trainers. Danny's fathered believed that if Danny was placed in a setting such as the ranch he would to respect others as well as learn to appreciate his Pokémon more.

"Danny!" Jim called out, getting the attention of a blonde haired teenager with wavy shoulder length hair.

"Yeah boss?" Danny said, walking over with his Nuzleaf by his side who was helping him mend fences.

"Danny, this is my nephew, Forrest. He's got a job for you." Jim said, passing the conversation to Forrest.

"Hi Danny, I'm going to be heading over to the Setureso region to start up a grass gym and I need trainers." Forrest said.

"Wow that's awesome! I'd love to train with you." Danny exclaimed.

"It's not that easy Danny," Forrest said thinking back to his conversation with Scarlet, he had to see what Danny could bring to the gym. "You have to prove yourself. You ready for a battle?"


End file.
